ADnD: Dragons of Flame/Game Mechanics and Techniques - Revision history

Ktwo: /* Enemy spawning (overworld) */

2020-11-13T15:02:11Z

‎Enemy spawning (overworld)

Ktwo: /* RAM-addresses */

2020-09-09T20:25:43Z

‎RAM-addresses

Ktwo: /* Enemy movement (overworld) */

2020-09-09T19:39:04Z

‎Enemy movement (overworld)

Ktwo: /* RAM-addresses */

2020-09-07T08:18:31Z

‎RAM-addresses

Ktwo: /* Magic */

2020-09-07T08:15:47Z

‎Magic

Ktwo: /* Magic */

2020-09-07T08:15:08Z

‎Magic

Ktwo: /* Enemies and damage */

2020-09-07T08:13:31Z

‎Enemies and damage

Ktwo: /* Enemies and damage */

2020-09-07T08:12:35Z

‎Enemies and damage

Ktwo: /* Enemies and damage */

2020-09-07T08:09:42Z

‎Enemies and damage

Ktwo: /* Enemies and damage */

2020-09-07T08:07:29Z

‎Enemies and damage

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 : - If the player is moving down, the enemies will spawn at the bottom of the screen
 : - If the player is standing still, the enemies will spawn in any of the 4 sides of the screen with equal probability
-Once the side of the screen has been determined, the game randomly calculates the other coordinate. If the calculated spawning position coincides with an object, the spawn is cancelled.<br />
+Once the side of the screen has been determined, the game randomly calculates the other coordinate. If the calculated spawning position coincides with an object, a new coordinate will randomly be generated within the next few frames (more detailed description for what determines when to calculate a new coordinate is missing). This means enemies will appear relatively fast also when the border is mostly filled up with objects.<br />
 * Note: The only possibility for an enemy to spawn on the right side of the screen is if the player is standing still (and then it's a 25% probability).

@@ Line 116: / Line 116: @@
 * A0/A2 - The screen's (small) y/x-position
 * 6452/6453 - The player's y/x-position on the screen
 * 6458 - First character's HP
 * 6462 and 646C - Enemy HP
 * 6472,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Enemy movement direction in the overworld. 0 means the enemy is moving to the right, 1 to the left, 2 up and 3 down (0F means it's idling, waiting to sync up with the player).
 * 6473/6474,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Enemy y/x-position in the overworld.
 * 6475,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Counter that increases every (non-lag) frame and resets to 0 after reaching #$2F. When the value is #$10, the new enemy direction is random. When the value is #$0 or #$20, the enemy will pick a direction that follows the player.
 * 6485 - Room number (dungeons)

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 : - When the enemy is running into an obstacle, the movement direction is recalculated every frame until a direction moving away from the object is found.
 : - If you make small pauses and thereby get out of sync with the enemy movements, you will notice they will also make brief stops, waiting for the positions to sync (same thing happens if they run into obstacles).
-: - When the x- and y-distance to the player is equal, the x-movement is preferred. This means it's relatively safe to try and run past an enemy above or below, but risky to do it a square to the left or right of the enemy.
+: - When the x- and y-distance to the player is equal, the x-movement is preferred. This means it's comparatively safer to try and run past an enemy above or below than to do it a square to the left or right of the enemy. It's regardless a game of luck trying to walk right past an enemy though...
 ==Enemies and damage==

@@ Line 113: / Line 113: @@
 ==RAM-addresses==
 * 79 - Global counter that starts on reset. It provides entropy to the RNG-calculation that starts at instruction $D016.
-* 83, 84 - RNG-addresses. Updated in the sub-routine that startsg at instruction $D016.
+* 83, 84 - RNG-addresses. Updated in the sub-routine that starts at instruction $D016.
 * A0/A2 - The screen's (small) y/x-position
 * 6452/6453 - The player's y/x-position on the screen
 * 6458 - First character's HP
-* 6462 (and 646C) - Enemy HP
+* 6462 and 646C - Enemy HP
-* 6472,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Enemy movement direction in the overworld. 0 means the enemy is moving to the right, 1 to the left, 2 up and 3 down (0F means it's idling waiting to sync up with the player).
+* 6472,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Enemy movement direction in the overworld. 0 means the enemy is moving to the right, 1 to the left, 2 up and 3 down (0F means it's idling, waiting to sync up with the player).
 * 6473/6474,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Enemy y/x-position in the overworld.
-* 6475,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Counter that increases every (non-lag) frame and resets to 0 after reaching #$2F. When the value is #$10, the new enemy direction is random. When the value is #$0 or #$20, the enemy will follow the player.
+* 6475,4*X - X = 0,1 or 2. Counter that increases every (non-lag) frame and resets to 0 after reaching #$2F. When the value is #$10, the new enemy direction is random. When the value is #$0 or #$20, the enemy will pick a direction that follows the player.
 * 6485 - Room number (dungeons)

@@ Line 104: / Line 104: @@
 * ''Hold person'' - Similar to sleep and web. It's possible it works on different enemies. Difficult to see any use in a speedrun though.
 * ''Spiritual hammer'' - Deals damage to enemies. Of no interest in a speedrun.
-* ''Blessing'' - Effect unknown. The manual describes it as "Protection From Evil" (PFE). PFE was a spell in Heroes of the Lance that greatly reduced the chance to get hit (and possibly the damage taken). The same effect has not been seen Dragons of Flame. It's possible it only works against certain enemies?
+* ''Blessing'' - Effect unknown. The manual describes it as "Protection From Evil" (PFE). PFE was a very useful spell in Heroes of the Lance that greatly reduced the chance to get hit (and possibly the damage taken). The same effect has not been seen in Dragons of Flame. It's possible it only works against certain enemies?
 * ''Dispel magic'' - Blocks enemy magic on screen and prevents enemies from casting new magic for a few seconds. It's only relevant against Bozak Draconians and Verminaard. Of no interest in a speedrun, but makes fighting Verminaard trivial.
 * ''Heal'' - Restores 127HP (i.e. 50% of full health).

@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 [[File:ADD DOF-Ember.png|60px]] - 80 damage. Ember is the second-to-last boss. It attacks both through fire breath (set pattern) and body damage if you get too close.<br /><br />
-[[File:ADD DOF-Verminaard.png|60px]] - 40 damage. Verminaard, the last boss, has both magic projectiles and starts whacking if you get too close.
+[[File:ADD DOF-Verminaard.png|60px]] - 40 damage. Verminaard, the last boss, attacks with magic from a distance and starts whacking if you get too close.
 ==Magic==

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 [[File:ADD DOF-Trap.png|60px]] - Traps deal 64 damage. Due to their fairly big hitbox, expect an evasive maneuver to cost in the vicinity of a second to avoid damage. It can be worth mentioning that Tasslehoff detects and disarms traps if he's in front. But since he should never be in front and his detection is announced by some time-consuming text, it's not relevant for a speedrun.<br /><br />
-[[File:ADD DOF-Goblin.png]] - 32 damage. The Goblin occurs only in place and has to be defeated to progress.<br /><br />
+[[File:ADD DOF-Goblin.png]] - 32 damage. The Goblin occurs only in one spot and has to be defeated to progress.<br /><br />
 [[File:ADD DOF-Ember.png|60px]] - 80 damage. Ember is the second-to-last boss. It attacks both through fire breath (set pattern) and body damage if you get too close.<br /><br />

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 [[File:ADD DOF-Griffon.png]] - Base damage 64. Can be jumped over. The hitbox is more to front of the sprite though so jump early (regardless if you're moving left or right).<br /><br />
-[[File:ADD DOF-Capac.png]] - There appears to be two versions of the Capac Draconians. They look identical, but they deal different base damage. The first encounters are with the weaker version (base damage 32), but starting from around room 46, all Capacs are of the stronger version (base damage 46). It's not possible to pass the Capacs without taking at least one hit (unless using magic). But try to jump over their first attack to at least avoid taking two hits from the same enemy.<br /><br />
+[[File:ADD DOF-Capac.png]] - There appears to be two versions of the Baaz Draconians. They look identical, but they deal different base damage. The first encounters are with the weaker version (base damage 32), but starting from around room 46, all Baaz are of the stronger version (base damage 46). It's not possible to pass a Baaz without taking at least one hit (unless using magic). But try to jump over their first attack to at least avoid taking two hits from the same enemy.<br /><br />
 [[File:ADD DOF-Troll.png]] - Base damage 64. Generally, you will take two hits by trying to run or jump through a troll. However, a few things to note:
@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 <br />
 '''Enemies dealing projectile damage'''<br />
-[[File:ADD DOF-Bozak.png]] - Just like the Capacs, the Bozak Draconians come in two visually identical variants. The stronger variant (damage 46) starts occurring at the same time as the stronger Capac variant. The weaker Bozaks deal 24 in damage. It's worth remembering that they deal no body damage. The projectiles can easily be avoided by ducking, for a small time loss (usually ~10 frames).<br /><br />
+[[File:ADD DOF-Bozak.png]] - Just like the Baaz, the Bozak Draconians come in two visually identical variants. The stronger variant (damage 46) starts occurring at the same time as the stronger Baaz variant. The weaker Bozaks deal 24 in damage. It's worth remembering that they deal no body damage. The projectiles can easily be avoided by ducking, for a small time loss (usually ~10 frames).<br /><br />
 [[File:ADD DOF-Trap.png|60px]] - Traps deal 64 damage. Due to their fairly big hitbox, expect an evasive maneuver to cost in the vicinity of a second to avoid damage. It can be worth mentioning that Tasslehoff detects and disarms traps if he's in front. But since he should never be in front and his detection is announced by some time-consuming text, it's not relevant for a speedrun.<br /><br />

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 ==Enemies and damage==
-The images in this section come from http://setsumei.html.xdomain.jp/famicom/adandddragonsofflame/adandddragonsofflame.html (except for the trap and Verminaard). The enemies described here are only the ones found in the dungeons. There are a couple of more enemies exclusive to the overwold. Howeveer, since the overworld encounters are only about hack-'n-slash, they don't require any additional description.<br /><br />
+The images in this section come from http://setsumei.html.xdomain.jp/famicom/adandddragonsofflame/adandddragonsofflame.html (except for the trap and Verminaard). The enemies described here are only the ones found in the dungeons. There are a couple of more enemies exclusive to the overwold. However, since the overworld encounters are only about hack-'n-slash, they don't require any additional description.<br /><br />
 For enemies that deal body or weapon damage, the damage taken is calculated with the formula [Base damage]-[Front character's defense]. For enemies that deal projectile damage, only the base damage counts (meaning the damage is always the same for all characters, regardless of stats and equipment). For enemies that do both types of attacks, the damage is calculated as projectile damage, regardless of which type of attack was used. Note that despite this game is built on the dungeons and dragons lore, there is no RNG or "dice-rolling" involved in calculating the damage. It's completely deterministic.<br /><br />